i'm back in my beloved South

the day after the whale watching i boarded a plane and flew to South Africa and then Atlanta. i'd been planning it for several weeks. it all began when i went to get my visa renewed and change my plane ticket. i had purchased it with dates at random a long time ago and had planned to change the dates to correspond with my visa. but when i went to change the flight that never costs anything, she told me i would have to buy a new ticket and that it could not be changed. i pulled out my credit card to just change it but something told me not to. a felt a check in my spirit and i knew i needed to give this more thought and prayer. so thought and prayer i gave it. and i knew i was not to spend the money on staying another month and that even though another month would give me more time with all our projects that there would never be a "good" time to leave. so i circled the date on the calendar and told no one. i decided why not surprise them. it's not every day you can show up at a field trip and surprise your sister and nieces and nephews. but i got to do just that. and the field trip included ice cream from a dairy in cleveland, georgia. so it was worth hiding in an office and explaining my story to strangers. my sister's face was priceless. my 5 year old nephew never left my side.

"Cat on Porch" - Abbeville, South Carolina

so, i'm home. and yes it feels wonderful to be back and back to "normal" and hot, running water and delicious food and family. but re-entry never gets easier. it just gets different. i no longer speak Portuguese to all the black people but i do find myself putting my keys and change from the cashier in my bra. i bathed twice a day for the first week, just because i could but now bathing is overrated and takes so much time and it's so hot in there. i see all these glaring flaws in our society and i find myself starring at people. we stare in mozambique. we spit too. i can't do that anymore.

i miss my friends and the school and my students. i just heard that the renamo have ended the peace pact they had with the frelimo since 1992. my heart aches. and then i get this message today. ROFI GOT A SCHOLARSHIP!!! sweet, precious Rofi. one of my students!! is going to UNIVERSITY!!!! and i want to be there to hug his neck. but i am here. in America with all these people on their cell phones.

i am spending a whole entire day with my sister tomorrow. just the two of us. something we have not done since my 32nd birthday- over four years ago. 

so i am good. i am happy and i will be okay. my taxes are in the process of getting done a little late and i am dealing with "real life" one day at a time. but my heart is there and i have no patience for your first world problems. but i still love you and i need you to love me too. 

more soon...